The growth and competition in the casino gaming market in recent years and the increasingly sophisticated and complex technology being integrated into the gaming environment, at the individual game, casino management, and auditing levels, presents both challenges and opportunities to game manufacturers, gaming establishment operators, and regulatory agencies. The technological capabilities and requirements of, for example, advanced electronic games, multi-site gaming operations, detailed player tracking, wide area progressive jackpots, and various alternatives to the use of currency and coins by players, all present a potentially huge pool of ever-changing data which can be of great value to casino operators, from a management standpoint, and to regulators from an auditing and compliance standpoint.
Casinos now have a wide range of gaming devices, including gaming machines such as slot machines, video slot machines, poker machines, video poker machines, arcade games, and video arcade games. There are also a wide variety of other devices associated with the business of the casino, virtual gaming machine, an electronic interface for use with table games, a vending machine, a token dispensing machine, a credit dispensing machine, or a ticket redemption machine, player tracking units, card readers, coin-bill management devices, ticket readers, display devices, and key pads.
Typically, the gaming machine controls various combinations of the associated devices to facilitate playing the games. For example, a player would generally input a monetary instrument, such as currency, or present a ticket or voucher into the gaming machine, indicate a wager, and initiate the game to be played. This process would require a transaction reading device such as coin-bill management devices and ticket readers, as well as for players to communicate instructions to the gaming device, for instance through a key pad or touchscreen display. After the playing of the game has been initiated by the player, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player, and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game.
It is also important to encourage players to maintain interest in playing the games. A common approach is to offer incentives such as through player tracking or loyalty programs. These programs reward players based on a number of criteria, for example, the frequency of playing the games. In order to track the player, a player is identified during play by a player tracking identification card and/or a player identification number (“PIN”). The player tracking system tracks the player's play and awards player tracking points according to established criteria. The player tracking points may be redeemed for prizes, such as complimentary meals or merchandise.
As was briefly discussed, players may enter or access funds to play the gaming machine in various ways. For example, a player may add money to a gaming device by inputting currency, such as a bill, into the coin-bill management device, and the authenticity of the bill is determined. The value of the authenticated bill is converted into the credits for play on the gaming machine, which are then added to the gaming machine's credit meter.
Alternately, and in addition, the player may utilize a ticket or a voucher. The ticket or voucher may have an associated number of credits or a monetary amount. The ticket or voucher may be read by a reader. For example, the coin-bill management device may also be adapted to read tickets. If the ticket has an associated monetary amount, the monetary amount is converted into credits, which are then added to the gaming machine's credit meter. If the ticket has an associated number of credits, the credits are directly added to the credit meter.
Typically, after the player has inserted the monetary instrument into the transaction reading device, it is read and stored in a secure cash box. As can be appreciated, the cash box can only be handled using strict security protocols, and opened in a secure location, generally some distance from the gaming device.
Issues can arise regarding the inputting monetary instruments. A common problem occurs when a player disagrees with the monetary amount or the number of credits that the gaming device credits him with. As often happens, this comes about when, having inserted currency and/or a ticket/voucher into a gaming machine, the player forgets the monetary amount or number of credits. When this occurs, the player may suggest that the transaction reading device “misread” the monetary instrument. Currently, in order to address and investigate such an issue, the player must stop playing, get the attention of a member of the casino staff, who in turn must make arrangements for the cash box to be removed and transported to a secure location where the contents of the cash box can be viewed to determine if the player is correct. This process is inherently time-consuming for the player and casino staff, requires that the gaming device be unavailable for a significant period of time, and raises issues of security.
A system for accessing information regarding monetary instruments which were deposited into and/or withdrawn from a gaming machine along with other information pertaining to the machine is disclosed at U.S. Patent Application Publication 2004/0002386 A1 to Wolfe, et al. (the “Wolfe '386 Patent Application”). The monetary instruments described in the Wolfe '386 Patent Application are restricted to bills and coins. The system displays a list of the quantity of monetary instruments contained within the machine, sorted by denomination. The display is viewable on either the gaming machine or on a remote device wirelessly linked to the gaming machine. The remote device is a handheld computer or a personal data assistant (“PDA”). Additionally, information pertaining to drops performed at the machine is viewable on the machine. The Wolfe '386 Patent Application restricts the monetary instruments included in the list, not including cashless tickets, vouchers, or magnetic cards. Further, the display does not include the date and time of the deposit or withdrawal of monetary instruments from the gaming machine, and thus makes it impossible to verify specific transactions related to the monetary instruments.
Accordingly, there exists an opportunity to improve the availability of transaction specific lists of monetary instruments and to include a wider range of types of monetary instruments listed. In addition, casino staff must have the ability to resolve issues related to specific transactions more efficiently.
The present invention is aimed at one or more of the problems identified above.